if Π.O. said to jump off a bridge, would you do it?

As Subscriberthon shudders to a close, it’s time to bring out a selection of Overland‘s nearest and dearest – including a cavalcade of former editors – urging you to dig deep in support of Australia’s only progressive literary journal. There’s still time to do the right thing.

As the space for independent media contracts and the mainstream print media turns into an ever bigger joke, like one of Stephen Murray-Smith’s lighthouses Overland stands tall in a tsunami of literary mediocrity, political bankruptcy, and intellectual dishonesty. Subscribe, the cultural life it saves might be your own!

Ian Syson

Overland is a magazine of deep thinking, a bastion against the distractions that pass for alternatives. It’s a continual source of vital, original and unexpected ideas.

Katherine Wilson

I have always looked at Overland to see what out there.
It seems to cast a different kind of net, and catch a different kind of fish.
It’s a different kind of discourse, and like a thorn presses the flesh, as tho to remind us that this dialogue is not yet over!
Of all the magazines, one eyebrow is firmly centred on the politics of politics and the other on the intrinsic value of literature, and unlike other publications treats the poem with the same standing as the other genres.

Π.O.

I have been a reader of Overland for many years. I have also had the opportunity to occasionally publish poetry, short fiction and essays with Overland. As a reader I am often stimulated by Overland’s contribution to political and social debate in Australia. It is always informative and necessarily provocative. As a writer I know that Overland readers are looking for creative work beyond the middlebrow of the mainstream.

Tony Birch

Without magazines like Overland, we’d all be stuffed.

Mark Davis

Overland is a custodian of Australian writing devoted to democracy and justice. It’s history inspires and illuminates; it’s pages continue to enlighten and provoke.
Sean Scalmer

Overland was founded as a magazine that would give a voice to its readers, rather than tell them what to think or feel. In an age when citizenship is defined by consumption, this ideal is more important than ever. The Overland community comprises its writers, readers and editors, and we need everybody’s support. We ask you to get involved, by subscribing, by talking about the magazine with others, and by letting us know what you think about what we publish.

John McLaren

The word ‘independent’ is thrown around wildly loosely these days, but Overland is a genuinely independent publication: independent of any particular political, intellectual or artistic faction, truly interested in ideas, even unfashionable ones, and with the guts to have a politics. It is also a vital part of the community of people, in Melbourne and beyond, who, broadly, share these ideals, and who together add so much cultural richness to our lives. Read it not just for the big ‘names’ and important statements, but for the new voices, the off-centre take on the world, the cheek, the occasionally scurrilous gossip. Support it, subscribe to it, know about – and be part of – what’s really going on.

Nathan Hollier

Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places.

If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate.

Jeff Sparrow is a writer, broadcaster and editor. His recent books include Trigger Warnings: Political Correctness and the Rise of the Right and No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson.